How to make an online photography portfolio

Date: 14.10.2018, 23:02 / Views: 62144

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In this article we will tell you about how to make a online portfolio without any special skills in web development. In fact, there are many information in the web on how to create a site for portfolio by yourself. But we will be honest with our reader – if you’re not a professional web developer, if you’re not an experienced web designer then you should leave this idea since you will get nothing worthy. You won’t be able to quickly create a good online portfolio on WordPress. And here the best solution will be using portfolio website builder. By the way portfolio builders is not the only one solution to publish your portfolio online. You can publish your portfolio on such special sites like Behance and DevianArt, you can publish in social networks, but the best solution, of course, is to have your own portfolio site on your own domain name. And for this purpose portfolio builders are the best suitable. This is a special online soft allowing to quickly, easy (and very often even free) make an online site for artist of different niches: designers, photographers, sculptors and other artsy people.

Website builders – is the easiest way to make a site for publishing a portfolio – both photo and video. Modern portfolio online builder have easy-to-understand web interface, they are SEO friendly and easily integrated with social networks. So, you will be able to share your works or photos both on your site and in social networks. Also, the best web builders allow to sell your works directly from your site-portfolio. Also other our post – – can be useful for you if you want to create your own website. And will be useful if you want to create online store.

Since, there are many website builders, we’ve selected the best, in hour opinion, website builder suitable to make online portfolio. While choosing we guided by the following factors: quantity and quality of web templates, functional opportunities, drag&drop editor, easy to use. So, here are 10 best online website builders of 2018:

WIX

If you are a photographer looking to create a beautiful website that will best showcase all your photography work, then one of the best options for you is www.wix.com. This is a website builder which lets you choose from a wide range of pre-designed website templates, customize them according to your needs and then upload your pictures and get the best out of it. It’s an easy do-it-yourself process and completely free of charge. Not only is it an easily achievable feat, with the help of Wix, you’ll have fun creating your new website as well. It has got in-built image editor, which will help you enhance, edit and retouch your pictures for your photography site.

Websites dedicated to photography need to be unique from other regular website. At Wix, you’ll find an array of templates, all exclusive for photography portfolios. One of the major assets of creating your photography portfolio with the help of Wix is that, no matter which of the hundreds of beautiful templates that you choose, you have full freedom of designing your website the way you want, thanks to the inbuilt drag and drop functionality. You will be able to place any picture on your website anywhere you want, which will give it your unique touch. Also thanks to the new HTML5 incorporated technology, now it’s incredibly easy to incorporate animations and 3D effects, without being a programmer. In fact you can even make your photography website more mobile and tablet friendly, via Wix, thanks to HTML5.

Jimdo

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Jimdo is an open source SaaS website builder that allows users to design portfolios in a matter of minutes. A robust, responsive and reliable platform, Jimdo offers designers, authors, photographers, and craft hobbyists a unique blend of website creation tools. The platform currently powers over 20 million websites. Very flexible and easy to handle, Jimdo is a WYSIWYG portfolio builder that will help you present your content in an awesome manner. Compared to its peers, Jimdo has a wider reach and appeal as it supports over 9 languages. Jimdo’s intuitive WYSIWYG builder allows you to tweak the selected portfolio template having to write a line of code. At Jimdo, users can enjoy unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, and social media integration. The beautiful and premium quality themes and templates are compatible with mobile phones. Jimdo even automatically creates a mobile-friendly copy of your portfolio as soon as you publish it.

At Jimdo you can create any kind of portfolios, ranging from simple resumes to vibrant photography portfolios featuring artwork and HD graphics. Moreover, if you have a web developer in your team, there’s good news, because Jimdo gives you access to the HTML5 source files and CSS. This gives you tremendous freedom to customise templates and add more DESIGN elements to the portfolio. The free version of Jimdo provides all the basic tools required to create and maintain a portfolio. You can upgrade to the paid Premium and Business plans for accessing advanced options such as SEO tools, CMS tools, and Google Analytics. The Jimdo App works on both Android and IOS device and offers an extensive range of options for managing and monitoring the performance of your portfolio. Jimdo also encourages artists to get in touch with the support team to get more ideas on how they can create a stunning portfolio using the platform. Also remember to check out examples of Jimdo powered portfolio websites to understand how great they can look.

SITE123

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The search for a comprehensive online portfolio builder ends with 123.com. From aesthetics to functional appeal, it covers all! The simple, responsive, multifunctional and flexible interface is easy to work on. No technical expertise needed, an in depth knowledge in coding is not required, nor is there any need for complicated software installations and hardware connectivity. Branded as the fastest, easiest and simplest websites builders out there, 123.com offers practical and useful tool for bloggers, photographers, and businessmen alike. There are effective website creation and marketing solutions for everyone!

Site123.com appeals to the portfolio creation needs of a wide audience base, courtesy the several categories that users can choose from. Based on the category selected, site123 provides a befitting template and default layout. The simple yet interactive framework demands no special technical knowledge; just follow the intuitive WYSIWYG builder’s menu options, and you’ll have a portfolio in no time. Choose from several categories of portfolio webpages, and customization options such as parallax, one – page layout, etc. to expand the appeal of your page. And the excellent customer services and support is an added perk. Features such as a massive free icons and image library, preset styles and layouts, and image gallery management mean that you can infuse life into your portfolio in a jiffy. Expanding your portfolio into a fully fledged online sales channel is possible, courtesy ecommerce functionality of site123.com. Leverage strong multimedia features such as audio and video tools, indulge in email and social media marketing with in-built widgets to explore your online portfolio’s potential. Other indisputable perks of site123.com include free of charge, even offers affordable packs , free web hosting and web domain name, SEO and CRM readiness, compatible with all operating systems and devices, multi website creation option, ample storage capacity (CDN servers spread globally).

Weebly

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Weebly is one of the best options for budding designers and photographers who want to showcase their work and build more contacts globally, via an online portfolio. Weebly has all the tools and features necessary for designing the perfect portfolio. The platform currently powers over 40 million websites and is extremely popular among professionals and amateurs alike. Once you have registered on Weebly, you will be directed to the different templates, with 7 dedicated portfolio website templates available for use. All these themes are easily customizable and can work well on all platforms. After deciding a theme, you can add videos insert text, embed responsive flash pages and graphics to your portfolio all in a matter of minutes. With the live editor you can easily upload and tweak your portfolio in real time. All you have to do is choose a layout, insert the images, and any other elements you’d want and publish it. Plus, you can add HD video, image galleries, responsive splash pages, and downloadable files to your portfolio to make it content-rich for audiences.

Weebly has an App Center where users can choose from a diverse range of applications such as TubePress, Accordion Gallery, and Mosaic for better management of the portfolio. Apart from that web developers even get access to advanced SEO tools, CMS solution, e-commerce solutions, form builder and Google Analytics. All paid and free plans offered by Weebly offers users free SEO tools, web hosting and domain registration services. You can also use integrated blogging to popularize and market your portfolio content. Plus, there’ unlimited storage, so your portfolio website acts as your always accessible online drive for your artworks. The Weebly technical support team is extremely responsive and helpful; you can contact them via email, video chats, phone or live chat forums.

Webnode

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Webnode emerged way back in 2008, and now has over 27 million subscribers. Everyone from budding designers to professionals can use this platform to create a stunning portfolio. First, choose a layout from the ‘portfolio’ section of the themes catalogue. Then insert your content and customise the look and feel of the portfolio using the editor. The clean, clutter-free, minimalistic interface is pretty intuitive and easy to work on. All you have to do is drag content elements and drop them on the desired position. The website editor is armed with a dashboard full of tools for adding images, text and embedding video onto your portfolio. Other tools include SEO enhancement solutions, e-commerce support, Google Analytics and CMS tools for boosting your portfolio’s SERP ranking and visibility. Webnode automatically generates a mobile-friendly version of your portfolio so that it can be accessed from anywhere, anytime.

Webnode is also a great choice for coders looking to work with HTML5 and CSS. Users can integrate their portfolio website with 3rd party marketing tools such as MailChimp and MailerLite. Webnode also generates a sitemap automatically and assists you in tracking the performance of the portfolio over a period of time. All kinds of portfolios from simple resumes to vibrant photography portfolios can be designed here in a matter of minutes. You can create an account at Webnode for free and use it for an indefinite period. Even the premium packages are pretty affordable and offer a lot more advanced features and premium themes.

Squarespace

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Squarespace is a website development tool that offers its users a comprehensive, around the clock service. There is a free trial period of 14 days initially when you sign up, during which you will have 24-hour customer service options. The award-winning customer care team works in-house and none of it has been outsourced. The templates that are designed by Squarespace are all created with HTML, Javascript and CSS technologies. The website that you will create with Squarespace comes with inbuilt mobile and tablet friendly versions. The intrinsic Style Editor tool in Squarespace will enable you to customize your website as you wish. You can modify colors, fonts, and design layouts to make your website look unique. The analytics tool will help you monitor the traffic and know as to what is drawing them to your website.

Using the template switching tool on Squarespace you can apply more than one template on your website, and then edit and customize it to fit your requirements. This tool allows you to work on more than one design at the same time. There are over 60 beautiful designs offered by this website builder, all of which have been created by well-known designers. A strong advantage that Squarespace enjoys is the possibility to import your pre-existing blogs from other platforms like WordPress, into the website that you create with the help of this tool. A full range of features are provided on Squarespace, which means that you don’t need to depend on any external sources for resources like picture galleries, traffic analytics tool or blogs.

Photoshelter

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A website builder that caters uniquely to all budding photographers out there and provides them with a multitude of options to create and beautify their website is Photoshelter. This website builder offers photographers a variety of photo editing tools in order to customize their websites according to their personal taste. The inbuilt pre-designed website templates offered by PhotoShelter that you can modify, will showcase your work beautifully to all the visitors on your website. There are helpful organization tools as well at PhotoShelter, which will help you with your picture uploading and formatting so as to make it easily available through online searches. Another unique feature about the PhotoShelter website builder is that it allows you to create private client photo galleries on your website, which you can share with exclusive clients, as well as share on social media platforms, depending on what you see best.

The websites created via PhotoShelter have an intrinsically high quality display, which will make your photographs looks brighter and have a stronger impact on those visiting the website. These high resolution files can also be delivered wherever you want, be it to one client, or displayed on a bigger, more global platform. You can also create an online store, in case you want to take your art to a more commercial level by selling off your photographs. This community of over 80,000 photographers is easy to join, and you can browse through this community by going through the photographer directory on PhotoShelter.

ZenFolio

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Zenfolio is a website builder that not only helps you in building up your photography website, but also helps you getting in touch with other photographers by creating a common platform for everybody to converge on. With its award-winning website development services, Zenfolio is sure to help you in establishing the brand value of you as a photographer through the medium of an extensively designed website. All you need to do is open an account with Zenfolio, and you can start working on creating a beautifully designed website right away, without having any kind of programming or coding knowledge. Just a few clicks and drag-drops later you can be sure to possess your self-customized website built on any one of the many pre-designed and customizable templates.

The beautiful galleries that you can incorporate into your website through this website builder will have fast loading, mobile and tablet friendly pages. This website builder also has a tool, called the Zenfolio Theme Designer, which gives you full freedom to control all graphical components of your website. This easy-to-use tool makes it easy for you to edit all these elements by simple point-and-click mechanisms. You can use it to modify text, background designs, buttons, and many more. Zenfolio has also launched Photographer Central, which is a comprehensive photographer directory for better network and spreading brand awareness. You can get a discounted listing on this directory, via Zenfolio, which in the end will help you be recognized as a photographer, generating more traffic to your website.

IM Creator

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Looking for a useful platform to create your portfolio website? While there are a lot of website builders out there which allow you to add text, images, and even whole photo galleries to your site, IM Creator gives you those features and so many other advanced features including support for blogs, high-resolution images, videos, music, billing and even social media linkage. The best part about IM Creator is that it gives you the option of managing a full-fledged online store. The IM Creator website builder is very simple to understand and even easier to use. The feature rich portfolio website builder allows you to create your own unique website for any purpose and even comes preloaded with website templates for weddings, blogs, fashion, restaurants and other businesses.

So, whether you are looking to build a corporate or portfolio website, IM’s website creator is the perfect way to showcase your talent on the World Wide Web! After spending a few minutes with IM’s free website builder, you’ll soon be convinced to try out the paid version, IM PRO. You’ll also see how simple it is to make your own website without requiring any knowledge about HTML, CSS, or any other complicated computer language. Another great feature of IM’s website builder is the strong customer support system that comes along with your package. IM offers a simple and easy solution to all your website portfolio creating needs, available in both free and paid versions.

Krop

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Most website builders limit you customization abilities to just changing a few lines of text and a shifting a few images. They also use the same design templates that are already being used by hundreds if not thousands of other users. Krop gives everything you require to create a contemporary, completely authentic portfolio website that truly conveys talent to the world. Krop’s advanced features give you access to thousands of beautiful and font styles. With a highly affordable PRO package, you get more flexibility in terms of designing your portfolio website. Krop allows you to link individual photos or entire galleries to your site, which is a great way to showcase you photography skills on your website. The biggest names in photography choose Krop’s website builder, which comes with an optional job posting feature to make sure that your work is seen by the best people in the business.

With swift and friendly customer support just a phone call or an e-mail away, you get one more reason to start using Krop’s website builder for your portfolio website. And when you’re speaking with one of Krop’s customer support team member, you know you’re in good hands. Websites built using Krop are automatically designed to look stunning on any platform whether it’s a PC, iPad or iPhone, android, or any other kind of mobile device. Instead of giving you a dumbed-down version of your website to fit on a mobile display, Krop’s portfolio websites are displayed in all their richness on any kind of digital viewing platform, whether its mobile phones or tablet PCs.

All About Portfolio Website Builders

If you are an artist, a photographer or a designer, the internet is possibly the best place to promote your artwork and get noticed by the big shots of the industry. The World Wide Web is not just limited to social networking sites and e-commerce web stores. There are a lot many ways to earn money, all you need is an idea and the right platform. Nowadays, having a portfolio has become a necessity for freelancers who want to expand their viewer base and get recognized globally.

What Should Be A Professional Portfolio Website

A portfolio is not just limited to artists and photographers, anyone can create an online portfolio irrespective of their line of specialization. There are many website builders that assist web developers in designing beautiful and professional portfolios for lead generation and better earning opportunities. Discussed below are some of the primary features that a portfolio website must have:

Simple Design

Nobody would like a cluttered portfolio that is difficult to navigate through and is full of widgets and graphic content. The key to a good portfolio is keeping it as simple as possible. A no-nonsense minimalistic interface featuring all the content in a systematic order is not only eye-catching but also easy to understand. Your portfolio should mirror your style and personality, it is the one platform where you can showcase your talent and unleash your creativity.

Catchy Domain Name

Once you have decided the basic layout of the portfolio you need to host it online. This is when you have to decide a name for your website. The domain name is your online identity, keep it simple and catchy. A sensible yet engaging website URL is essential for the success of your portfolio. Remember, your audience will recognize your website via the domain name. URL also affects the overall page ranking and SEO of your website.

Creative Communicative and Concise

The three basic Cs of portfolio creation are creativity, concise content and communicative interface. The way you present your work is of utmost importance, ensure that you keep the content clean-cut and clear. Also, don’t overtly promote the content.

Contact Information

It is mandatory that you mention your contact details and email id at the end of the portfolio. This is for the client to contact you in the future if he/she is impressed with your services. You can even add links to all your other blogs and websites here.

Pros of Portfolio Website Builders

An online portfolio is the best way to present your work in a systematic and engaging way. With a portfolio website builder, you can create a portfolio website reach out to more clients and expand your contacts in the industry. Listed below are some other pros of portfolios website builders:

Marketplaces, Votes, Collaborations, and Sales: The biggest benefit of portfolio website builders is that they provide a flourishing marketplace for designs. Plus, options such as likes shares, and upvotes help designers get clarity on the kinds of designs people like the most. Then, these builders let designers, artists, and photographers collaborate on projects, and sell their works easily to clients.

Perfect Designs to Showcase Portfolios: These builders offer themes for portfolios that can showcase photography, design, apparel styles, and model portfolios easily. With a dedicated portfolio builder, your website looks more like an online portfolio than a collection of web pages.

Ample Space for Storing Your Digital Assets: Portfolio website builders let you upload your heavy digital content and keep it safe and accessible all the time. This is much better than sharing Drobpbox or Google Drive links when you wish to showcase your high quality designs and photographs to potential clients.

Video Backgrounds, One Page Designs: Portfolios are best showcased with the right backgrounds, and with portfolio website builders you get advanced options such as video backgrounds, one page designs, and minimalist black and white backgrounds. Customizable backgrounds let you showcase your portfolio the way you want.

Cons of Portfolio Website Builders

Like almost everything else, even portfolio website builders have their fair share of downsides. Let us look at the other side of the coin now:

Learning Curve: To really be able to grow your portfolio, you need to spend time to learn to use the advanced functionalities of online portfolio builders.

Lock in: Switching from one platform to another can be challenging, because most portfolio builders offer their proprietary website builders and custom coded themes.

Expensive: Online portfolio builders can be expensive, particularly with their premium themes and premium features.

Best Online Portfolio Sites

Choosing a competent and responsive portfolio development platform is not an easy task. There are loads of websites out there that claim to offer the latest and most advanced of features at the best prices. Now that you know all about the features, pros, and cons of portfolio websites, it is the time we move on to discuss the best portfolio platforms in the market.

Behance

Behance is an unconventional and innovative portfolio builder that offers much more than your average go-to website building platforms. With Behance, photographers, designers, artists, and animators can create and customise fully functional portfolios using the latest editing tools and features available online. The platform also has a very active community where you can post job listings, browse through the client list and follow other artists. At Behance, you can also create your own profile, link your social media accounts, appreciate and add other artists and be a part of curated galleries.

All you have to do is register and create an account at Behance and you’re good to go. Extremely well managed and user-friendly, the platform is an essential for freelancers and budding artists who want to get recognized. Behance recently launched a new plan called the Behance Pro site that has paved the way for other platforms such as Adobe, giving you total control over the presentation and promotion of the content online. The tabular layout of the interface is easy to navigate through, you can even tweak the HTML 5 and CSS code of the page. Users can transfer all of their projects in one platform and customise it from there.

Adobe Portfolio

Adobe is a household brand that’s almost synonymous with photography and photo editing. Adobe Portfolio is a very recent addition to the long list of portfolio builders circulating in the market. The interactive, intuitive and responsive interface is pretty easy to use and customise. Armed with an extensive range of themes, customisable graphics, SEO tools, e-commerce solutions, free web hosting and Typekit’s fonts, the platform assists you in creating beautiful and premium quality portfolio in minutes. Adobe Portfolio is for the amateur designer, the budding artist who wants a simple and minimalistic portfolio.

Adobe portfolio also creates a mobile-friendly version of your website as soon as you launch boosting the productivity and reach of the content. Here, users get absolute control over the hosting, domain registration and presentation of the website. The grid-like framework of the interface is also integrated with Lightroom, Photoshop, and Illustrator. On the downside, the platform is not suited to established large-scale businesses. We would not recommend it if you want an advanced or complex interface with loads of functionalities.

Coroflot

Coroflot is also a new and upcoming portfolio builder that is slowly gaining popularity among designers and animators. Currently hosting over 150,000 projects, the platform is not as huge as other platforms such as Behance but it’s getting there. With its easy drag and drop interface, intuitive framework, and extensive archives of themes, layouts, and graphics, Coroflot provides everything you’d need to build a proper professional portfolio. Moreover, the platform is sponsored by brands such as Nike, Google, Apple, Facebook, and Adidas, giving young designers an opportunity to work for the big companies of the industry.

The platform has no storage and bandwidth limit and also comes with a cloud backup feature that secures your website against online threats and data hacking. The interface is pretty basic and well-organised, featuring only the necessary tools required for customising the content. With Coroflot users can also calculate the reach and leads generated by the portfolio thanks to the many analytical tools available here. Coroflot also works as a job portal and sends you immediate notifications in case there’s a listing suited to your portfolio.

Conclusion: What Will Be The Best Solution For Portfolio?

Having a portfolio enhances your chances of getting employment tenfold. You can not only expand your viewer base but also build contacts in the industry attracting the established concerns and big clients to review your work and hire you. The three platforms mentioned above are all quite popular and innovative in their own way offering the latest features to the table. However, at the end of the day, you have to consider the size, scale and target audience of your content before choosing an appropriate portfolio builder.